Browserland

Chrome Takes Lead in Browser Wars

News — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 23:08:20 +0000

Via Scoop.it – Browserland
Chrome Takes Lead in Browser WarsInfoboomGoogle’s Chrome 15 has moved to the front in browser competition, overtaking Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8 (IE 8).
Via www.theinfoboom.com

Google Books for Chrome now lets you read offline

News — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 23:08:10 +0000

Via Scoop.it – Browserland
Google Books for Chrome now lets you read offlineThe VergeThere’s been one piece missing to that puzzle until now: unlike the phone and tablet apps Google Chrome didn’t offer offline reading.
Via www.theverge.com

Google Paying Mozilla Almost $1B for Firefox Search: Why? – PC Magazine

News — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 23:07:48 +0000

Via Scoop.it – Browserland
ZDNet (blog)Google Paying Mozilla Almost $1B for Firefox Search: Why?PC MagazineConsider this: If Google’s Chrome OS takes off, the company will invariably push Google Chrome as the de facto browser for users of the operating system.
Via www.pcmag.com

Goodbye, Steve.

Giovanni Panasiti — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 07:15:43 +0000

Thank you for the example of dedication, passion, strength you’ve given to us.

And for making our computing time more easy, fun, productive for so many years, continuing to innovate so much.

This page is a tribute to you, your incredible personality and your valuable work.

Thank you Steve. The thought of you will always inspire us.

Firefox Now Scores 100% on Acid3 Test

Mastered News — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 15:34:57 +0000

Via Scoop.it – Browserland

A good news for the Firefox fans: Firefox now scores 100% on the Acid3 test.
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TooManyTabs Frees Up Memory in Chrome Without Losing Your 50 Open Tabs

Mastered News — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 21:18:32 +0000

Via Scoop.it – Browserland

If you find yourself opening way too many tabs in Chrome and sucking up memory, TooManyTabs can suspend a few of them for awhile to make it run a little smoother, while keeping quick access to those tabs for later.
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How To Create Your Own Firefox Skin

Giovanni Panasiti — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 19:22:10 +0000

The Internet browser is the user’s vehicle to all online information. Whether we are checking email, managing accounts, facilitating business, or watching movies, without a browser we would be stuck.

Most of us do not give the browser the credit it deserves and this is probably because most of us are not really interested in our browser itself; we are instead interested in what our browser provides us.

Firefox brings us the best of what a browser has to offer the user. Here, you will not only find a vehicle for online information, you will also find a vehicle for personal interests.

Firefox creates personalized browser themes that are tailored to the individual user. There are a couple key things to keep in mind when creating and designing Firefox skins.

The Dimension of the Firefox Browser

First and foremost, you must know your motivation and identify your audience/end user. Firefox has the largest platform for themes and can support 200 pixels in height with versions 3.6 and below showing 85 pixels and Firefox 4.0 showing 110 pixels. Below, is the design template Brand Thunder uses for Firefox.

When designing a theme, it is important to know that only certain visual elements are going to be visible in the theme. For example, both the top and bottom of the screen are not going to be available visual space for the user and less than half of the image is going to be viewable. The horizontal size of the image is going to require some design work.

The width of the image is a shifting landscape and is 3000 pixels. When looking at a browser that is expanded at 1024 pixels next to a browser expanded at 1920 pixels, you will notice how very different the pixels are from the background perspective of the image.

Split images are less weighty than single images which slow down performance. A great way to get a fully styled background with less file weight is to use screened elements and tiled textures/partial images. You want the design to be minimal and clean and patterned backgrounds are a key ingredient for good design.

Image Placement for Firefox Themes

Simple backgrounds are best for creating Firefox personas and these are usually a single 3000×200 pixel image. Brand Thunder lets you surpass this in Firefox where the creation of Enhanced Personas is possible. Enhanced Personas enable a variety of CSS background traits and let you have more color control.

You can layer a background image with solids or tiles. Images can be stacked either left or right, with the left image layered above the right. Logos work well when they are square shaped and placed into the background of the design at 50px tall. Stay away from rectangles and wide images.

The move away from horizontal lines and horizontal design elements can be seen when looking at the old and new versions of the College Humor browser theme. College Humor’s original browser theme had both a wide logo and horizontal line. The most recent theme design by College Humor is cleaner and more efficient in that it uses the space wisely, and there are less alignment complications throughout the browser.

When creating a successful browser theme, it is important that designs do not depend on the exact placement of these horizontal elements.

Crucial design components should keep a small margin from the title-bar this way they will not get misplaced in the title bar.

Where to Begin

The browser theme will be utilized a great deal by the user and therefore should not be visually overpowering. The design needs to be minimal and clear, yet also bold enough to stand out from other elements within the design. There is obviously going to be a lot going on within the theme (tabs, URL bar, etc.) and the main design elements need to be strong yet subtle. Design should not too visually complicated for the viewer/user.

Browser design is an interesting and challenging endeavor and here are a couple of user-friendly wizards to get you started. For example, BT:Engage is a platform that is currently used in private beta that allows you to create your own browser themes. Below, are some helpful tutorial sites:

BT:Engage: Firefox and IE theme creator
Firefox: How to Create Your Own Persona for Firefox
Firefox: Create and Host Your Own Personas Gallery with Personas Interactive

Author Bio:
Patrick Murphy is the founder and CEO of Brand Thunder (BT). You can follow him on Twitter @brandthunder or Facebook. The team at Brand Thunder creates persistent engagement between major brands and their online consumers with extreme makeovers for Internet browsers. BT’s new platform, BT:Engage, gives everyone the tools to build and share their own browser themes.

Top 3 Firefox Add-ons for SEO Campaigns

Mastered News — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 07:16:34 +0000

Via Scoop.it – Browserland
Top 3 Firefox Add-ons for SEO Campaigns The Mozilla Firefox has been one of the most widely used internet browser in the world competing with some of the most popular such as Internet Explorer and Safari.
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Gmail Offline App for Chrome

Mastered News — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 14:00:55 +0000

Via Scoop.it – Browserland

You need to sign-in to your Google account to install this app, after installing the app for the first time with internet connectivity Gmail offline automatically synchronizes messages and queued actions in Chrome. You can start this app by click offiline Google Mail icon on the new tab page. P.S This app currently not working on Stable version of Chrome for us without internet connection, Chrome showing “Offline Google Mail The app is currently unreachable”, wonder what’s wrong with Chrome in my system.
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Chrome Being Developed As A Gaming Platform

Mastered News — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 09:47:44 +0000

Via Scoop.it – Browserland

Video game has been a big topic for web browsers as well as HTML 5. On Thursday in the official Google code block, I noticed Google heavily pushing New Game, the first North American conference for HTML 5 game developers. The idea of developing games in HTML5 is an exciting concept in itself. I also observed Google noting that Chrome will soon be equipped with sandbox Native Client (NaCl) with 3D.
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